BUDAPEST, April 26 (Reuters) – Hungary’s incoming prime minister Peter Magyar said on Sunday he would go to Brussels on Wednesday for informal talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to unblock funds frozen by the bloc over disputes with his predecessor.
“There is no time to waste,” Magyar, whose landslide victory in an April 12 election ended nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule, said in a statement.
Magyar had previously outlined four key areas where his cabinet could move swiftly to avoid the loss of some 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) of EU pandemic recovery funding by an end-August deadline, including measures to battle corruption and restore media and academic freedoms.
He said after the election that he was hoping for a political agreement during his first visit to Brussels.
Orban, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, often clashed with the EU over the rule of law and human rights, resulting in the freezing of billions of euros in funds.
In the April election Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party won a supermajority, giving it the power to change the judicial, public tendering and media control laws that have been at the centre of disputes between Orban’s government and Brussels.
Hungary’s economy has been practically stagnant for three years.
Financial markets have rallied and the forint currency has surged on Magyar’s victory with hopes that the EU will unblock funds.
($1 = 0.8535 euros)
(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, Aidan Lewis)
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